Plateau!

Warwickshire Whizzer

Hello all,

Not sure this is quite the correct section of the forum, but think it may be…

Although I’m not training for races etc... I am attempting my first 100mile sportive in early September (I know it’s not a race but I want to record a decent time for my own satisfaction) and the coast to coast late September, where I want to bury my mates on the climbs we’ll encounter, though spend the rest of the time having a jolly tour)

My query is less about training for the rides but rather more around weight control as I’d like to be around 79kg for the attempts and hold it for a shot at the Etape next year.

Since the beginning of the year I’ve managed to slim down from 101kg to a current 83.5kg, primarily through calorie control (slavish use of livestrong app to track calories consumed) and cycling as primary form of exercise.

However, I have definitely plateau’d over the last 4-5 weeks with no change in body weight.

Calorie intake is circa 1300 a day and I don’t feel it’s too wise to drop below this really (typical day might be porridge and orange juice for breakfast, an apple mid morning, a protein shake with milk for lunch and a variety of evening meals – all pretty much within my calorie target and homemade from fresh ingredients). I measure calories burned via the estimates from my Garmin heart rate monitor as it seems more realistic than other calcs – eg, an hour of cycling at an average of 80% MHR is around 660Kcal, which seems fairly close and I’m careful not to use calories burned as an excuse to eat a shed load more.

Cycling tends to be a weekend ride of circa 50-60 miles, with 2-3 days of commuting on the bike when work allows of 16 miles each way during the week. For the weekend ride I look to ride at what feels like a hard pace, typically 2 ½ hours with my morning commute easier at an hour and pushing it harder on the way home. Breakfast is taken after my morning commute in a nod towards bonk training.

So, (eventually!) how do I push on and drop the rest of the body weight? (I’m measuring 19% on the scales, though understand you take it with a pinch of salt, but it’s clear to me there’s plenty excess to come off).

Increasing the amount of cycling I’m doing isn’t a pretty viable option (young family, long work hours – balance) and I’m not convinced a reduction in calorie intake is a wise idea. Would intervals help? I’ve read from various sources they can but would trust your opinions/experience more!

A turbo is en-route for my birthday (Jet Fluid-Pro?) which should enable extra bike sessions at home.

Any suggestions?

P_Tucker

1300 calories a day? Sweet Jesus, good effort.

Nothing useful to add.

mattshrops

1300 is VERY low, and i dont believe that is sustainable for long term. imo you should be eating at least double that and still lose weight. I dont know how true it is but the theory goes that your body will shut down and act as if you are in a starvation situation (whichis what you are replicating) and therefore save your body fat for "the end"??
The other thing is i dont really understand the whole crash diet thing, presumably at some point you'll go back to a "normal" diet - and maybe put some back on??
If you slow it down a bit you'll have more energy for training and maybe fool your body into letting go of that fat- but also develop a "lifestyle diet" that you can enjoy and continue with once you reach your target weight.
Or i could just shaddap.
p.s. my bodyfat is now down to approx8-10% and i enjoy a good diet.

Warwickshire Whizzer

1300 is where I'm at now, I started at circa 1700 to lose 2lbs a week, and to be honest, discounting, the odd holiday, and blow out when there's been a big family party, it hasn't been a huge effort and I've largely managed it. As for sustainable, I've been at it since January and feel no hankering for food, I feel, before hand, my portion control was way wrong. I'm happy to be corrected, but I don't see how eating 2600 calories a day and not exercising a ton more will reduce weight further.

I don't view this as a crash diet, more a change of diet. I've worked out my base metabolic rate and reduced it by 7000 calories a week in the understanding there is 3500 calories in a pound of body fat. I'd eat ridiculous amounts prior to this, for example, 200g + of pasta in a meal would be no issue.

Am I now in starvation mode? I suspect I would have switched to this prior to July from a start in January? Or do I need to make a fundamental change?

I am the god of hell fire

OK Im not an expert or even remotely qualified on the matter
However this is the internet so here we go

1300 Cals is naff all for an adult male doing lots of cycling

I dropped a significant amount of weight purely by starting exercise again a few years ago
I didnt alter my diet at all and eat like a pig - particularly carbs as I have always had a weakness for bread and pasta

It took a year or so but I lost over 10kg much as you have
My riding at that time was probably 2h x2-3 per week

Ive stepped things up this year to rding harder, much harder, and sometimes for 8h on a good week and have lost another couple of kg's however Im still eating massively

None of my training is particularly scientific
I just ride my bike hard up the hills, take it easy on the downs and make sure I arrive home knackered most but not all of the time

Like you Im wondering how to make things more formal, but with a busy job and young family I can only dream of those training plans you read of online which dictate 6 sessions a week!

Well done so far
But you need to eat more as far as I can tell

Cheers

ut_och_cykla

Some things to try.
Have an eating week now and again - dont go mad just eat a bit more especially on days you exercise - so your body is kidded into thinking its not starving.
Up the pace of some of your sessions slightly. Longer (20 minute) intervalls for instance. Keep more active on days you don't cycle - walk , swim, jog with the dog etc.
Trim off a few calories on days your don't exercise but make sure on days you cycle you top up afterwards in readiness for your next session. swap a small quantity of your carb intake for protein rich (but low fat) food for a few weeks adn see what happens.

Pigtail

I aimed for a pound a week and sustained it for over a year. I didn't do the calorie counting, but was disciplined in sticking to a regular routine. I reached a point where I felt rightly or wrongly that I could 'feel' the difference in my body when I was running a calorie deficit and consequently burning my own fat.

To try and prevent my metabolism slowing down, or entering starvation mode, I aimed to run a deficit 5 days a week and eat more to achieve a balance at the weekend. I reckoned with a pound of fat being about 3500 calories it was worth running 700 calorie a day deficit for 5 days rather than 500 for 7.

I also found it became increasingly harder over time. I increased my exercise and made slight adjustments to my diet to compensate. I doubt if I ever got anywhere near 1300 calories. In fact I would have rarely been under 2000.

You will get slight variations in weight. Be disciplined about when you weigh yourself, don't do it too often and look for patterns rather than expecting every single weigh-in to show a decrease.

No science behind it - but it worked for me!

meanredspider

Yes - again, totally unqualified to comment, but 1300kcals is nothing. In fact it's far too low, I think, and may be contributing to the problem. Maybe try upping it a bit and eating little but often (say 6-7 times a day) to encourage the body to burn it. My understanding is that the body needs some glycogen to burn fat effectively and this maybe where the issue lies. These are all things I've read but I'm not an expert of any sort.

That said, I plateaued in exactly the same way after exactly the same scale and rate of weight loss. Your age may have something to do with it (though I have no clue what it is) - middle-aged blokes can find it incredibly difficult to shift some fat.

Good luck

Warwickshire Whizzer

Thanks guys, I guess the general consensus is feed the machine if you want to keep the fire burning. I would add I'm not strict about sticking to the limit - if we fancy a takeaway or a meal out, I indulge guilt free, and the odd Thursday session down the pub with the guys isn't without a tonne of extra calories.

We do walk a fair bit as a family at the weekends, so not quite sedentary, but weekdays are often spent at my desk or in the car, with evenings rolling around the floor with the kids for an hour, hence basing the BMR on being laregly sedentary.

I'll up the intensity of my rides, and try some 2x20s and refuel afterwards and see if I can kick to get down to my target.

Cheers!

Slack

I've come across the starvation mode thing before also; reading that if the body has less than a 1000 net calories a day, it will start to store fat.

I can't remember where I read this, neither can I verify the source or accuracy.

ut_och_cykla

I 'beleive ' in the starvation mode idea too BUT it doesn't make sense. taken to extremes if you eat nothing your body will not go down in weight? - I think not somehow.
I logged everything on Livestrong for several months - taking average values for a random 3 months (food in - exercise out) I ended up at net of 1100 kcals a day ie I ate more - about 1700 a day and exercised away the rest - 8-12 hours a week of fairly hard exercise.
I lost a measly 2 kilos from my BMI 25.5 frame. It's a mystery to me. If I did nothing and only ate 1100kcal I think I'd be malnourished and certainly have no energy for exercise.


And the key to blokes not losing so easily as they get older is said to be reduction in testosterone leves/loss of muscle mass.

Let us know how you get on though.

Warwickshire Whizzer

Thanks Guys,

Will update with how things go. And tucking into a mighty nice sushi dish right now.

Oh, I'm 34 and 6'2 if that helps anyone!